Captain Marwoto Komar, arrested on Monday after eight hours of interrogation, was also charged with other offences, including violating aviation law, and could face over five years in jail, said his lawyer Muhammad Assegaf.

The Boeing 737 with 140 people on board bounced and skidded off the runway before bursting into flames in a rice field in March last year.

Both pilots survived the crash, which happened less than three months after an Adam Air aircraft disappeared with 102 passengers and crew off Sulawesi Island.

Last year, a National Transport Safety Commission report said the pilot had descended too rapidly, ignoring 15 warnings, but declined to attribute the crash to 'human error' or 'pilot error'.

The aircraft 'was flown at an excessive air speed and steep flight path angle during the approach and landing, resulting in an unstabilised approach', it said.

Mr Stephanus Gerardus, who heads Garuda's pilots' association, said the arrest was unlawful as it was based on some of the findings published by the commission.

Indonesian officials have said that under International Civil Aviation Organisation rules, the results of a probe by a country's transport safety commission cannot be used as evidence in court.

About 30 pilots staged a protest at the Parliament building in Jakarta, demanding the police release Komar immediately and calling for a separate tribunal for aviation offences.

'The criminalisation of pilots will put pilots under pressure in carrying out their job,' said chairman Manotar Napitupulu of the Indonesian Pilots Federation.

REUTERS